Page 90
Story: Till Death and Daisies Bloom
The air cracked.
Not loud. Not thunderous. Just...final.
It rippled out from me in a wave, in a pulse of something red and jagged and primordial. The kind of power that doesn’t ask for permission. It punished. It took. This kind of magick should have been impossible–I hadn’t had penetrative sex yet. My powers should still be under lock and key. But they’d been growing, ever since I’d met the Sins.
“Holy shit–” I think it was Pride. I dismissed it.
Everything narrowed down to Xavier, who whined like the little bitch he was while Envy and Greed held him down.
It wasn’t fire, not yet. But the heat crawled up my spine like someone had uncorked the sun. My mom made a strangled sound in her throat as my feet lifted slightly off the ground, hair twisting in an invisible wind.
“Her eyes–” Gluttony whispered, entrances.
“You followed me,” I said to Xavier. My voice was two tones layered over each other—mine own, and something deeper. “You stalked me. You lied to me. You fuckingkilledme.”
Xavier stuttered. “I—mean I clearly didn’t. I just wanted?—”
“You wanted control,” I snapped. “And you lost it.”
All other noises ceased to exist.
“Juniper, please. Get control or you might take out the city block.”
Gluttony’s voice was calm, tinged with vampiric persuasion that I’d never been able to physically see before, but now I could–a teal spark that carried out of his voice toward me.
It enraged me.
How dare anyone try to control me.
Everything burned.
The sky cracked overhead like a snapped bone, golden lightning veining through clouds swollen with power. My veins sizzled with it—too much, too wild. The world throbbed in red. My feet hovered above the ground, and I couldn’t hear anything but my heartbeat and the hum of something ancient clawing its way free.
Until a soft growl cleaved through the chaos.
It wasn’t threatening. It was low and guttural, a sound that vibrated in the space between worlds. The shadows behind me twisted, coiled, and then sprang to life.
Was that...was thatDamon?
The shadowcat emerged from nothing, eyes gleaming violet and endless. The moment I looked into them, the fury inside me hiccupped. Not stopped—never stopped—but caught for just a breath.
He pounced.
A black mist unfurled, racing along my body like silk soaked in ice water. It didn’t smother the power—itredirectedit. Contained it. Absorbed it into his abyssal form, his body rippling with blood-red lightning as he snarled and arched like a great cat caught between dimensions.
I dropped like a stone.
But I didn’t hit the ground.
Damon caught me in that breathless void between heartbeats, and with a final pulse of dark energy, the world blinked out—park, Pride, Lust, Xavier, mymother—gone.
Replaced by cold marble, warm firelight, and the echoing silence of Gluttony’s manor.
I collapsed onto the velvet rug, gasping, body drenched in sweat and trembling. My skin felt too tight. My magick had no skin.
The other Sins stumbled in beside me, each one deposited like cargo in varying states of disarray. Lust hit the nearest armchair with a groan. Greed cursed as Envy tripped and nearly fell on his face. Pride landed on his feet, naturally. Gluttony emerged last, cloak swaying behind him, pale and grim.
“I’m going to kill Xavier,” I rasped, voice raw from screaming.
Table of Contents
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 42
- Page 43
- Page 44
- Page 45
- Page 46
- Page 47
- Page 48
- Page 49
- Page 50
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 53
- Page 54
- Page 55
- Page 56
- Page 57
- Page 58
- Page 59
- Page 60
- Page 61
- Page 62
- Page 63
- Page 64
- Page 65
- Page 66
- Page 67
- Page 68
- Page 69
- Page 70
- Page 71
- Page 72
- Page 73
- Page 74
- Page 75
- Page 76
- Page 77
- Page 78
- Page 79
- Page 80
- Page 81
- Page 82
- Page 83
- Page 84
- Page 85
- Page 86
- Page 87
- Page 88
- Page 89
- Page 90 (Reading here)
- Page 91
- Page 92
- Page 93
- Page 94
- Page 95
- Page 96
- Page 97
- Page 98
- Page 99
- Page 100
- Page 101
- Page 102
- Page 103
- Page 104
- Page 105
- Page 106
- Page 107
- Page 108
- Page 109
- Page 110
- Page 111
- Page 112
- Page 113
- Page 114
- Page 115
- Page 116
- Page 117
- Page 118
- Page 119
- Page 120
- Page 121
- Page 122
- Page 123
- Page 124
- Page 125
- Page 126
- Page 127
- Page 128
- Page 129
- Page 130
- Page 131
- Page 132
- Page 133
- Page 134
- Page 135
- Page 136
- Page 137
- Page 138
- Page 139
- Page 140
- Page 141
- Page 142
- Page 143
- Page 144
- Page 145
- Page 146
- Page 147
- Page 148
- Page 149
- Page 150